Category — News

I’m sure by now all of you have heard about the whole Rachel Ray might have been wearing a keffiyeh in a Dunkin Donuts ad thing. Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin said the scarf was linked to terrorism and all that good stuff.

My coworker found one particular comment on the BBC story that is unfortunately, oh so true:

“Brilliant! Everything that is wrong with America in a single news story. Neo-Con extremism, the inability to distinguish between ‘Arab’ and ‘terrorist’, corporate kow-towing to inarticulate ranting, and huge diabetes-inducing donuts with icing on top.”

Whenever someone in America does something ridiculous, comments in the BBC are usually split - you have the non-Americans saying ‘well, that’s America for you’ while you have the Americans trying to convince BBC readers that they are not all like that.

I bought a black and white checkered keffiyeh for my little sister at a protest I went to in San Francisco a couple of years ago. I always thought the incorporation of this particular scarf into fashion here was a bit ridiculous as I went from surprise that more and more people were publicly displaying their solidarity with Palestine to the realization that the scarf was worn as a fashion statement, not a political statement.

Oh well. What can you do.

The latest issue of Rolling Stones features a fascinating Special Report titled Fear Factory, by investigative journalist Guy Lawson. In this article, Lawson details how the FBI has gone to great lengths to go after terrorist threats, to even the point of creating threats themselves. Lawson writes of how outfits of the FBI, such as the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) have used informants to lull unsuspecting people (Arab and South Asian Muslims for the most part) into planning terrorist plots, ones these people never would have pursued on their own.

“While real threats undoubtedly exist,” Lawson writes,”what the Bush administration promotes as a nationwide pattern of terrorist activities is largely the result of its own policies in the age of lawfare.”

He goes on to write about one of many examples, the “Fort Dix Six,” about a group of Muslims who allegedly wanted to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey:

As in other cases, the FBI itself proved to be the mastermind behind the plot. The men —who included three roofers, a taxi driver and a former delivery boy for Super Mario’s Pizza — had little money and no connections to real extremists. All were in their twenties and spent their weekends playing paintball. Under the guidance of two informants for the JTTF, the men planned an assault on Fort Dix using rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s —none of which actually existed.

The article is available in its entirety on the Rolling Stones website. The article can also be found in the latest print version of the magazine, the one with a February 7, 2008 cover date and a picture of Thom Yorke of Radiohead on the cover. It’s definitely worth reading.

The day I came came back from Pakistan, I was going to update this blog with my final thoughts about Pakistan and all that is going on around there. Instead I spent the day I got back and the next day sitting around in my pajamas and catching up with all of my shows on the DVR and drinking Pedialyte.

So anyways. . .

Pakistan - EMERGENCY (as the Pakistani news channels we have proclaim, complete with the total number of hours, minutes, and seconds it’s been since Musharraf called for Emergency).

In an effort to keep himself in his post, Musharraf disregarded the constitution and declared martial law - effectively putting the elections on hold. Of course, he said it was because of the extremists but everyone knows better.

Because my mom and sisters are still in Pakistan, I was a bit more concerned than I usually would have been. However/Fortunately, Karachi has barely been affected. Even the shops, which usually all close when this type of political activity happens, have remained open.

I recall a conversation that I had with one cousin while I was in Pakistan about the kind of country Pakistan is. He said that it’s not an Islamic state like most people are led to believe. I said most people probably believe that since the entire name of the country is, y’know, ‘The Islamic Republic of Pakistan.’ He looked past my smart aleckness and replied that it’s actually a military state and everyone in Pakistan knows it. I think everyone else now knows it too.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan today from her self imposed exile. Because she wanted to create a lot of fanfare, she decided to drive around Karachi in a convoy. The police asked her to skip it all because of bomb threats, but she decided to go through with it. Not the best idea.

First, the article listed the number of casualties as under 100, then 108, and then 125. Then, they changed it to ‘more than 100.’ InshAllah (God Willing), this is the only incident and we won’t have to worry about anything while we are there.

Ann Coulter, well known hate monger (not my words) has a new book out which promises to be exactly like her old ones - an avenue in which to put down liberals while preaching her own brand of neocon vitriol. Unfortunately, that means she’s making her round of talk shows to promote her “work.”

Here’s a sample from a recent interview on CNBC with Donny Duetsch, host of The Big Idea , transcripted byMedia Matters:

DEUTSCH: That isn’t what I said, but you said I should not — we should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians, then, or –

COULTER: Yeah.

DEUTSCH: Really?

COULTER: Well, it’s a lot easier. It’s kind of a fast track.

DEUTSCH: Really?

COULTER: Yeah. You have to obey.

DEUTSCH: You can’t possibly believe that.

COULTER: Yes.

A blogger on DailyKos has an article about this that makes a rightful point:

“The absurd part about all of this is not that a serial scenery-chewer like Coulter would say shocking things. The absurd part is that, in spite of all the things Coulter says all the time, she still gets invited by major news outlets to make those comments. Every. Damn. Time.”

So here’s my question - why do people not view her the same way they do extremists of other religions? She stands for hate and is against everything that America is supposed to stand for.

She’s also part of the tour for David Horowitz’s completely silly “Islamofascism Awareness Week,” a thinly disguised forum for bigotry gracing a university campus near you during the week of October 22nd.

10 Bucks says she doesn’t have a reflection.

I leave you with this exchange, also from the Media Matters transcription of the same interview, regarding her views on liberal mixed race couples:

COULTER: You walk past a mixed-race couple in New York, and it’s like they have a chip on their shoulder. They’re just waiting for somebody to say something, as if anybody would. And –

DEUTSCH: I don’t agree with that. I don’t agree with that at all. Maybe you have the chip looking at them. I see a lot of interracial couples, and I don’t see any more or less chips there either way. That’s erroneous.

COULTER: No. In fact, there was an entire Seinfeld episode about Elaine and her boyfriend dating because they wanted to be a mixed-race couple, so you’re lying.

DEUTSCH: Oh, because of some Seinfeld episode? OK.

What an argument folks!

Hey, it’s officially my first post on politics!

So here’s the thing - I’ve been struggling to figure out which Democratic candidate to back. I haven’t been able to muster up support for any of the three main Democratic candidates: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards. The three of them have some aspect to them that bother me, especially Clinton. One of the biggest things is their stance on Iraq. Yes, they want to pull out troops from Iraq, but they want some sort of presence still there. That’s just one of the issues I have.

There’s a really good article about this on The Nation titled How Different are the Top Three Dems? The author is trying to figure out who to vote for as well. She then says she might go for the candidate she actually agrees with, Dennis Kucinich. I find this very interesting because I really just learned about this guy a few days ago when I was listening to NewsHour on PBS (88.5 FM in the Bay Area). This guy’s stance on just about every issue coincides with my own: Immediate withdrawal from Iraq without any kind of American presence, universal health care, and so many other issues. Here’s what he has to say about Israel and Palestine:

But the United States must take an even-handed approach. We have to do everything we can to help Israel survive. And Israelis perceive this existential threat; we must be attuned to that. At the same time, the Palestinians are crying for justice that they can’t receive with walls and fences and losing their property.

There has to be a United States presence that assures the survival of the Israelis and the rights of the Palestinians. And, frankly, here again, I’m the only one running for president who’s even talking about this.

Basically, Kucinich is talking about a lot of stuff that the other Democratic candidates, including the top 3, are not talking about. Read the whole transcript of Kucinich on Newshour here. It’s really good stuff folks. This guy is getting my vote.

I’d like to share this video with all of you from Australia’s Chaser’s War on Everything, sort of Australia’s answer to The Daily Show. They sent a correspondent to the U.S. and asked random folks what should be done about those Muslims. The video will make you laugh and/or wince:

(I probably should have written this last week)

Last week was the 60th anniversary of Pakistan’s independence. August 14, 1947 signified the ‘Parition,’ when Pakistan split from India. Pakistan was created to be a “Muslim” country so Muslims that were on the India side migrated to Pakistan for the most part (still plenty left there) and Hindus on the Pakistan side went to India.

My mom was just a baby when her family migrated. Everyone in the village next to theirs was killed, at which time they realized it was time to go to Pakistan. The put a lock on the door of the house and left with few possessions.

There would be these camps that those who were migrating stayed in as they trekked over to Pakistan. A while ago my dad, who was about 7 at the time his family migrated, said how one night he snuck out of the camp to get a cookie. He said it offhandedly and I don’t even know what we were all talking about when he brought it up, but my sister and I exchanged a look. I was like, “Dad, you risked your life for a cookie?”It was beyond me.

Although I was born and raised in the U.S., I’m still defined by my Pakistani ethnicity and yet I still don’t know much of the story behind the partition. All I really do know is that Muslims and Hindus were killing each other. I don’t know what events transpired surrounding the break from India, the key players, etc. I don’t know anything.

So when I was at Borders last week, I got excited when I saw the book Indian Summer, which is about the summer India and Pakistan achieved their independence. After I’m done with this book, I’ll look into it more. And then one day, maybe I’ll travel to the town of Uttar Pardes in India where I still have a few distant relatives and see if I can picture what life must have been like before the country split and most of my family left there. Who knows, maybe while I’m conducting this hypothetical trip I can finally figure out why my last name is Burney.

Extra stuff:
The New Yorker published an extensive review of Indian Summer.

Lana Lang herself, Kristin Kruek, plays a Muslim girl during the time of partition in the Canadian movie Partition, starring with Jimi Mistry. I have yet to see it but I am, I have to admit, intrigued. Why should you watch it? Because of the tagline on the poster of course: Two Faiths. Two Worlds. One Love.

In one of my favorite books, Max Barry’s Syrup, one of the characters was named @. The novel was about marketing soda (that’s a very simplified way of putting it, it’s so much more than that) so for the character to have the @ was a method to directly compete with another character whose name was 6 (once again, simplified explanation).

In real life, the idea of someone having that name is absurd. Who would actually name their kid
or change their own name to @?

Well actually, a couple in China wanted to name their kid, you guessed it, @ - story here.

This is funny:

Study: Iraqis May Experience Sadness When Friends, Relatives Die

BALTIMORE—Are Iraqis capable of experiencing grief on a personal level, like Americans? A new study suggests yes.